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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Paap - no sin for me to drool for John!

Another day of my John filmfest! I hope to re-watch and review all his films, good and bad, here to share with everyone. Why not share with others my obsessiveness? No wonder I have to put screen caps up! Hahaha, I actually learn more visually so I take my disability and use it.

Just like Jism, Paap has been dubbed in English with the literal meaning, Sin, and can be found at my local movie rental store as well. If you have seen the Hollywood film, Witness with Harrison Ford. You know what Paap is all about. But wait a minute, don't discredit Paap yet! It actually is a very well-made film! Mainly because I found Witness to be boring. The visuals alone is worth watching. Plus lots of eye candy as well. You won't find a mind-blowing script but definitely worth it for John.

Witness is about a little Amish boy witnessing a crime. Paap takes on the main plot. Replace the Amish religious aspects with a Buddist belief. What I find fasinating is how the debut director, Pooja Bhatt, who I love, changes up the story a bit to make the film focus more on Udita Goswami than on John Abraham. In Witness, it was entirely Harrison Ford's movie all the way. Another interesting fact is the Amish people are like the Puritans who kept their religions and live as simple and plainly as they can. Just like the Buddhist aspect of Paap, many people may have forgotten but the Buddhist religion originated in India.

Kaaya (Udita Goswami) waits to join the Buddhist monastery. However, she must go to Dehli from Spiti to bring back Lamho (Madan Bhiku), He is a 6-years-old boy, who is said to be a reincarnation of a high spirital leader. While waiting to return back to Spiti, Lamho witnesses the brutal murder of a police officer. Shiven (John Abraham) is the police officer assigned to the case and protects Kaaya and Lamho. When Lamho identifies the murder as the police officer, Raj Mehra (Gulshan Grover), Shiven risks his own life to save Kaaya and Lamho. On his journey to Spiti and healing from his wound, he starts to fall in love with Kaaya. Now, Kaaya is caught between religion and love.

Can you see Pooja Bhatt's name here? Paap is her debut directoral film. Even Paap was the first Bollywood movie to premiere at the Kara Film Festival in Karachi, Pakistan on December 20, 2003.

For those who may not know, Pooja was a well-known actress in the 90s. Her father is Mahesh Bhatt. Besides Paap, she has also directed Dhokha, a film that I enjoyed a lot.

Shiven is an honest cop who wants to do the right thing. When finding the truth about the murder, he risks his own life to save Kaaya and Lamho from the killers. He never thought he will fall in love with Kaaya. But he is unselfish and wants her to make the decision for herself, no one else.

John Abraham brings sexy back again in Paap. He bares it all again, showing off his fine physique features -- his six-pack abs. Of course, there's always his sexy squinted eyes, along with his gorgeous dimples. His acting is yet again, overlooked by others.

All Kaaya's life, her father has brought her up to believe that her future is in the Buddhist monastery. However, she dreams, like all girls do, to love and be free. She often writes poetry about falling in love and feeling beautiful. Never did she think she would fall in love with Shiven. But she can not do so, she must not disappoint her father who gave up his life raising her. Now, she believes she is committing a "paap." Is she able to ever fall in love?

Udita Goswami is drop-dead gorgeous. Since Paap was her debut film, I thought she portrayed Kaaya wonderfully. I'm sad that since then, her future films were not as great. On a bright note, Udita is from Assam, a state in North East India.

Lamho is said to be a reincarnation of a great spirtual leader. In Tibet Buddhism, the word Rinpoche is used as as an honorable title, as mentioned in the Wiki page. Forgive me since I am not familiar with the religion.

Madan Bhiku is adorable. He could pass my hubby in his younger days, hehe.

The backstabbing corrupted cop, Raj Mehra. Gulshan Grover is always great playing a negative role.

Another corrupted cop who knows about Raj Mehta and out to get Shiven. The sad news is Sushil Mehthur is a senior cop.

Zakir, like Shiven, is an honest cop. He helps Shiven out only to find out that his life is on the line.

Shiven's sister who is there for him.

Lama Norbu is in charge of the Buddhist monestery and assigned Kaaya to get Lamho from Dehli.

Mohan Agashe plays Kaaya's stern father. He has selfish reasons for wanting Kaaya to be in the Buddhist monastery. Because of his stern behavior, he annoyed me a bit.

Music is beautiful with beautiful ghazals. Like Jism, not all the songs on the soundtrack were used in the film. The beautiful "Sun E Mere Dil," which was sung by Anuradha Pawal and Udit Narayan was one of my favorites. I love how Pooja Bhatt uses Anuradha Pawal in her debut directorial film, Paap, because Anuradha has sung a lot of songs for the Bhatt's in the 90s, such as Aashiqui, Janam, and Dil Hai Ke Mante Nahin.

Song #1 - "Intezaar"Beginning credits. Kaaya loves to write poetry and dreams one day of falling in love.

Watch Below

Song #2 - "Garaj Baras"Shiven takes Kaaya and Lamho back to Spiti

Watch Below

Song #3 - "Mann Ki Lagan"Shiven and Kaaya fall in love

Watch Below

Shirtless John is always great to stare at. :D

I love the scene when Shiven ask Kaaya to recite one of her poetry for her. The look on his face is adorable

Paap is not a film you will watch over and over. The script isn't original but it's so beautiful, you can not just overlook it. Look below at how beautifully shot it is. The cinematography is gorgeous. Even John and Udita are lovely to look at.

Just give Paap a watch, you may end up liking it more than you realize.

Shweta - To be fair, the reason why I like Paap is because I've seen the original movie, Witness -- I found Witness very boring. I loved how Pooja Bhatt turned the film around as I mentioned to make it more of a Kaaya movie and to show off the beautiful location of Spiti. If you didn't like Paap, trust me, you won't like Witness. ;P

Darshit - I know, I love the music. You're right. It introduced awesome Pakistani music. I just love how the movie captured beautiful elements of the movie. You should give it another watch. :)

Wow Nicki! Great screen caps, now in addition to the music and JA being enough incentive for me to see then film, I have the gorgeous scenery to look forward to. I see it's in the "save" category only in Netflix, so I'll wait until i't available to watch there and then report back.All the best!Sita-ji

Credits & Crap

Please credit this blog if screen caps or any other information are taken. Since I am a visual person and like to share with others what I have seen, adding screen caps would be an extra oomph to a boring blog. Plus it really takes a lot of time making screen caps. I could tag all the caps but it takes more effort and plus I think it makes the pics look tacky.